The Computer Shopping List: Tech Branding

When you build and consult on computer hardware for a living, you quickly learn to stop reading marketing brochures. Brands can paint their logos on a box and tell you they’re the best in the business, but when a machine has to run flawlessly under a heavy workload, only real-world telemetry and track records matter.

When we are mapping out a system brief, we look for "no-conflict" purchases—the components we can add to a shopping basket with absolute confidence, knowing they won’t cut corners, overheat, or let our clients down.

1. The Shell: Thermaltake & Fractal Design

When it comes to cases, we balance two distinct needs: show-stopping desk presence and brilliant out-of-the-box functionality.

• Thermaltake: If a client wants to showcase their hardware, Thermaltake has absolutely dominated the game lately. Their Tower 300 and Tower 600 series are a dream to build in. They offer an incredible, panoramic view of the components while remaining remarkably easy to route and configure.

• Fractal Design: For clients who want a clean, sophisticated, Scandinavian aesthetic, Fractal is an instant win. Their case options always include highly thoughtful, pre-configured cable routing channels, exceptional built-in fan functionality, and a timeless look that fits beautifully in any home office or studio.

2. The Screens: BenQ (Zowie / Mobiuz)

The monitor market is flooded with copycats—brands just buying cheap, mass-produced display panels from a central supplier, slapping their own bezel around it, and calling it a day.

BenQ does things differently. They use customised, individual backpanel engineering through their sister brand AU Optronics, which means you are getting an honestly designed piece of display tech. We love that they strictly separate their functions:

• The Zowie line is our go-to for hardcore, competitive gaming where pixel-response times are life or death.

• The Mobiuz line is perfect for immersive, visually rich gaming.

• Their professional graphics and office specs offer the exact color accuracy creators need. No gimmick crossovers; just tools built for the specific job.

This being said, they do also use panels made by LG Display for some of the design models but we have no issue with LG Displays, they are fantastic in their own right. Especially for design and colour accuracy requirements.

3. The Motherboard: ASRock

Our rule for motherboards is simple: function over flash. We don't care about aggressive plastic gaming shrouds or unnecessary RGB badges; we care about rock-solid power delivery and motherboard tracing stability.

ASRock is our absolute gold standard for reliability. They build rugged, dependable boards that just do their job day in and day out without dramatic software bloating. If stock shortages hit or a specific brief requires an alternative, Gigabyte is our trusted second option, but ASRock remains our default foundation.

4. The CPU: The Impending Pivot to AMD

For the past number of years, Intel held the performance crown in our workshop. Their high-core-count architectures were undeniable for rendering and processing heavy video workloads.

However, corporate structures and product stability should dictate consumer trust. Given some of Intel's highly questionable business decisions and architectural missteps recently, we no longer view them as a safe bet. Because of this, our next workshop CPU purchase will almost certainly be an AMD Ryzen chip. AMD has proven they listen to the community, although not without problems notably the 800 range, their efficiency and platform longevity shouldn’t be ignored.

5. The GPU: Adieu, EVGA... Hello, Radeon

In the insider world, this one needs no introduction. EVGA was the absolute best to ever do it. Their build quality, thermal engineering, and customer service were legendary. We still run an EVGA 3080 Ti in our heavy-duty workhorse rig.

But since EVGA famously exited the graphics card market, and Nvidia has doubled down on what many consider incredibly anti-consumer business tactics and overpricing, things have changed. For our future gaming and general performance builds, we are stepping away from the green team. Our next GPU purchase will likely be an AMD Radeon card—supplied by ASRock, keeping our core system architecture beautifully aligned.

6. The PSU: Hunting for the Right OEM

Historically, every single unpaid build we’ve done for friends, family, or personal use was backed by an EVGA power supply. They partnered with the absolute top-tier Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs—the actual factories that build the internal power platforms) ensuring no corners were cut on capacitors, safety rails, or electrical shields.

With EVGA winding down their legendary PSU lines, we are entering a new era. ASRock has recently launched an impressive lineup of power supplies (like their Taichi and Steel Legend units), and while we are highly likely to supply our next builds with an ASRock unit, our ultimate decision will always come down to a strict audit of the underlying OEM factory parts. A server that runs 24/7 demands nothing less.

7. The RAM: Avoiding the Micron Umbrella

Memory is an interesting market because almost all RAM on earth is actually manufactured by just three major global chipmakers (Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron). Most consumer RAM brands just buy these chips and put their own heat spreaders on them.

Because quality across the big three is relatively equal, choice usually isn't an issue. However, due to recent shady corporate and supply-chain maneuvers from certain players, we are making a conscious personal effort to vote with our wallet. We are actively avoiding Crucial memory modules and, subsequently, any modules utilising Micron memory chips.

8. The Cooling: Arctic & be quiet!

Keeping a system quiet and cold is a precise science, and we divide our loyalty based on the case environment:

• Arctic: Our definitive favorite for high-performance liquid cooling. Their Liquid Freezer AIO series is arguably the best on the market, and their deliberate engineering of pressure-optimized (P-series) and airflow-optimized (F-series) fans, paired with their industry-leading thermal pastes and pads, makes them an absolute no-conflict purchase.

• be quiet!: Our top choice for pure, unadulterated acoustic silence and premium traditional air-cooling blocks.

9. The Hard Drives: Toshiba All the Way

If you are building a massive 130-terabyte home media vault like ours, you learn to be incredibly ruthless about hard drive manufacturing history.

We use Toshiba enterprise drives exclusively—specifically, their MG08 series. Why? Because the MG08 line represents the absolute pinnacle of Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology before manufacturers started aggressively experimenting with Heat-Assisted (HAMR) or Microwave-Assisted (MAMR) recording to cram data onto disks. We want proven, old-school mechanical reliability for our 24/7 servers.

Who we skip: We avoid Seagate completely due to historically volatile failure rate data, and we will only look at Western Digital if we absolutely have to, following their past controversies regarding sneaking slower SMR drives into NAS-branded consumer lineups without labeling them.

10. The SSDs: Samsung & Lexar

For high-speed solid-state storage, Samsung EVO and PRO drives have long been our bulletproof boot-drive choices. However, for our wider storage expansion and miscellaneous read/write tasks, we have been aggressively phasing out our old Crucial solid-state drives and replacing them with Lexar. Since Micron sold off the Lexar brand, they have consistently put out phenomenally fast, high-endurance flash drives at prices that put older legacy brands to shame.

The Takeaway

Building a great PC isn't about buying the most expensive components on the shelf; it’s about understanding the corporate ethics, engineering standards, and real-world performance of the parts you are pairing together. By keeping our build lists strictly confined to no-conflict brands, we ensure that every machine leaving our bench is built to survive the long haul.

A HTPC? But it’s 2026?

The golden era of the casual, mainstream HTPC has faded. Mass consumers have migrated entirely to plug-and-play streaming devices. But if you value maximum control over your entertainment, uncompromised audio-visual quality, and true multitasking hardware, we are here to tell you the exact opposite: The dedicated HTPC is more relevant and powerful than it has ever been.

Our own compact Mini-ITX media vault sits happily in our living room setup, running silently 24/7. It isn't just an outdated relic of the DIY scene—it’s the center of our home entertainment.

The Casual Reality.

Let's be completely honest: streaming sticks and TV boxes are fantastic for casual, daily use. In fact, we use them across our own house. We have a Xiaomi TV Box hooked up to the living room television for quick viewing, and a compact Xiaomi TV Stick running things in the bedroom.

For basic, day-to-day tasks, they are brilliant. If you just want to throw on a quick YouTube video, check a Twitch stream, or utilise hands-free commands via Google Home integration to turn off the lights, these low-powered devices are perfect. They handle the casual stuff seamlessly without requiring the use of a full system.

But when it's time to transition from casual viewing to an immersive movie night, a local gaming session, or high-fidelity audio, the streaming sticks hit a hard technical wall. That is exactly where the HTPC kicks in.

the Ultimate Multitasker

Our living room PC doesn't just do one job; it is a true multitasker for our entire digital life. It handles three massive workloads simultaneously without breaking a sweat:

Our Always-Available Plex & Music Vault

The system serves as our central media heart, hosting our entire library and running a 24/7 Plex server. It provides instantaneous, always-on music streaming access whether we are sitting on the couch or connected remotely on our phones halfway across the world.

A True Uncompressed Cinema Experience

While a streaming stick compresses audio to save data bandwidth, the HTPC is paired with a dedicated sound card that outputs pristine, discrete 5.1 surround sound straight to our audio setup. When we watch a film through the HTPC, we aren't getting the compressed 4K streaming version found on commercial apps; we get the full uncompressed audio and video processing that local media hosting allows coming from UHD disc rips.

The Ultimate Couch-Gaming Console

When the movie ends, the machine seamlessly pivots into an entertainment console. By utilising the Steam Link service alongside a couple of wireless Xbox controllers, the HTPC transforms the living room setup into a high-powered, local multiplayer hub for cooperative gaming nights.

Why Windows is Still King for the Multi-Use Build

If you dive deep into the self-hosting and Plex server communities, you’ll notice that Windows isn't exactly the trendiest choice. Most enthusiasts prefer dedicated, headless Linux distributions or unRAID setups for pure data storage.

But when your server is also your physical living room HTPC, Windows remains the absolute best tool for the job.

Windows provides a level of versatility and useability that other operating systems simply can't match. It bridges the gap between a rugged background data server and an easy-to-use, consumer-friendly gaming and media console perfectly.

The Verdict

The standard smart TV box is designed for convenience, and it handles casual streaming beautifully. But it is an enclosed ecosystem.

The HTPC is digital independence and most certainly isn’t dead. For home cinema enthusiasts it’s the perfect balance of convenience and power.

Where We Are Right Now: The OG gamer

This second machine is our primary desktop monster. It handles high-end gaming, online streaming, video upscale processing, and dedicated game hosting. And just like the media server, it runs 24/7.

It didn't always look like this, though. This computer used to be a jack-of-all-trades, single-handedly managing our Plex server, with on-the-fly transcoding, running our couch gaming/movie nights and being the daily drive for everything else. But trying to render video or host a game while someone else is trying to stream a 4K movie in the living room is a recipe for a bottleneck.

By splitting the workload and moving those media tasks onto our repurposed Mini-ITX rig, we completely liberated this machine.

The Shell: The Cube Form Factor

For this build, we went with a Micro-ATX form factor housed inside the Thermaltake Core V21.

If you’ve never built in a Core V21, it is an absolute joy for hardware enthusiasts. It’s a unique, cube-shaped chassis where literally every single panel—top, bottom, front, and sides—is completely removable. It essentially transforms into an open-air test bench, giving us total freedom to route cables and optimise airflow exactly how we want.

The Brains: Finding the Sweet Spot

At the core of the Z-series motherboard sits an Intel Core i7-9700K.

Because we paired it with a Z-chipset board, we had the freedom to really push the silicon. We originally had the chip past the 5.0GHz milestone just to see what it could do. However, the jump in power draw, and heat generation didn't justify the nudge in real-world performance.

Instead, we backed it down and locked in an overclock of 4.9GHz which we’ve found to be our sweet spot.

To keep those eight overclocked cores chilled around the clock, we installed the Arctic Freezer II 240 AIO liquid CPU cooler.

The GPU: The Unofficial Hybrid Frankenstein

Now for the centerpiece of the build: the graphics card. We are running an EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3.

Anyone who knows hardware knows that EVGA made some of the absolute best-built, most resilient cards on the market before they exited the GPU business. We swapped the original air cooler out for an official EVGA AIO liquid cooling bracket, effectively turning it into an unofficial 3080 Ti Hybrid.

Because this card works hard for its living, maintenance is key. And the 30 series cards at the time they came out were going through an overheat fiasco. Since purchasing it, we have completely stripped it down repasted and padded it twice.

Power & Pressure-Optimised Airflow

A machine running a 4.9GHz CPU overclock and a power-hungry 3080 Ti needs a strong power foundation. We have our own tried and tested 750W EVGA power supply to handle things effortlessly.

Finally, inside the Core V21 cube, airflow is a precise science. We have a total of nine Arctic fans circulating air through the chassis. Using a deliberate mix of Arctic’s Pressure (P-series) and Flow (F-series) fans.

The Perfect Separation of Powers: Moving our Plex and HTPC duties off this machine and onto a dedicated shelf-hardware build was the best operational decision we could have made.

That wraps up the current state of our two core computer rigs!

Where We Are Right Now: The Media Vault

The foundation of this build is the Fractal Design Node 304. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a brilliant little Mini-ITX case with a clean front panel.

To keep things compact, we paired it with a spare Mini-ITX motherboard we had stored on the shelf. Now, this is a non-Z chipset board but it actually works out just fine for us.

The Brains: Repurposing with Purpose

Sitting in the motherboard socket is an Intel Core i5-9600K.

Now, hardware purists might look at that K-series chip on a non-Z motherboard and ask, "Why use an overclockable CPU if your motherboard chipset won't let you tweak it?"

The answer goes right back to our philosophy of smart recycling. This chip already has performance headroom for server tasks, and it doesn't benefit from being overclocked in this scenario anyway. Its integrated graphics engine is fully capable of handling on-the-fly Plex hardware transcoding when friends stream from outside the house.

To make sure this machine can run 24/7 without sounding like a jet engine in the living room, we installed a fanless be quiet! CPU heatsink. Because there are no moving parts on the cooler, the CPU operates in complete, blissful silence.

Powering the system is a fantastic but admittedly old 650W EVGA power supply—a brand that will pop us regularly as a favourite of ours.

The Storage Matrix: 130 Terabytes and Counting

This is where things get genuinely ridiculous. To host nearly 50,000 music tracks, 1,500+ films, and close to 18,000 TV episodes, we needed a storage array with some serious room.

Inside the case sits a 2TB SSD handling primary music operations for everyday reading, alongside a dedicated 500GB internal SSD acting as a high-speed scratchpad for miscellaneous read/write tasks (keeping this off the main storage drives).

Connected directly to the Mini-ITX rig are two 6-bay TerraMaster Direct Attached Storage (DAS) units. Inside these units sits our pride and joy: eight Toshiba MG08 series 16TB enterprise hard drives.

Multimedia & Game Nights

To round out the HTPC side of things, we threw in a dedicated Creative 5.1 sound card to feed audio out to the sound system. Along with two Xbox controllers ready for local cooperative game nights—but we’ll save the details of our HTPC couch gaming for a dedicated blog post!

Up Next...

That is where the 24/7 media vault stands today: compact, silent, and holding a literal mountain of data.

But a media server is only half of it. In our next log, we’re going to look at the primary desktop rig.

The Hardware Graveyard: Why Older Tech is the Secret

In the tech world, there is a bad habit of treating hardware as effectively useless the moment a newer generation hits the market. But if you design your tech ecosystem effectively your old purchases can serve you for years to come. In our setup, our primary gaming rig and our home media server share a matching architectural philosophy. When the gaming rig gets an upgrade, the older components step down to take over the daily duties of our server hardware and Home Theater PC (HTPC).

Maximum Value, Minimum Cost

Because hosting a media server or running an HTPC requires a completely different type of performance than high-end gaming, these older components get an immediate lease on life relative to their workload. A multi-core processor or a graphics card that might be starting to sweat under the weight of the latest AAA games may just cruise through server tasks. They go from being aging components to ultra-reliable server hearts, running with massive performance headroom.

Could we go out and buy brand-new, entry-level hardware specifically for these other builds? Sure. But why spend the cash? The cost-to-performance ratio of buying new budget parts compared to utilising high-quality older parts you already own just doesn't make financial sense. By reusing your gear, you stretch the absolute value of your original tech investment over a much longer timeline.

The Second-Hand Marketplace

But what if you don't have a personal pipeline of upgraded parts sitting around? The second-hand market is a goldmine for building budget-friendly, high-performance home rigs if you know where to look and what to look for.

Master the eBay Hunt

Platforms like eBay are flooded with older PC hardware from enthusiasts upgrading their rigs. When building your own computer or server, you don't always need the bleeding edge. Looking for bundles—like an older motherboard, CPU, and RAM combo sold together—can save you a massive amount of money and guarantee that those core components already work together.

Tap Into Enterprise Upgrades

Every year, corporate offices and data centers across the UK decommission thousands of perfectly good computers and storage arrays. You can find dedicated independent refurbishment sites or specialist marketplaces selling used enterprise-grade gear with high discounts. An older, ex-business desktop computer can easily be converted into a powerhouse Plex or network storage machine with minimal effort.

A Critical Safety Warning for System Builders

Smart recycling and second-hand hunting have their strict limits, and the line is drawn entirely at the power supply.

A power supply isn’t just another component; it’s the active shield protecting your data. Reputable brands design their Power Supply Units (PSU) with manufacturer warranties ranging from 5 to 10 years for a reason. That is the window where the internal electronics should be guaranteed to deliver clean, stable voltage.

Once a power supply works past its warranty period, its internal components slowly degrade, and its reliability becomes entirely uncertain. Reusing an ancient, out-of-warranty PSU to power a server that runs 24/7 is a ticking time bomb.

When you are diving into the hardware graveyard to build your next project, salvage and recycle everything you can—but always invest in a fresh, warrantied power supply to act as the foundation of your machine. Your data will thank you for it.

Why We Built a Custom Home Server?

What started as a convenient way to watch your favourite shows has devolved into a frustrating web of fractured platforms, rising monthly subscription fees, and a revolving door of licensing agreements that yank movies off your watchlist without warning. If you love film, television, and music, relying on corporate streaming platforms means you are paying a monthly premium just to rent access to culture.

That is exactly why we decided to step off the carousel and build our own dedicated media server.

By taking control of our own hardware and self-hosting our library, we’ve created a private, permanent digital archive that rivals any mainstream platform in performance—with zero reoccurring fees, zero ads, and total ownership over the content.

Here is exactly why self-hosting is the best decision we ever made for our digital life, and how we are sharing that experience with our inner circle.

Taking Control: Our Current Library by the Numbers

When you manage your own server, you truly realise the scale of what you can curate. Because we built our rig with massive storage headroom and optimised transcoding capabilities, our self-hosted platform has grown into a staggering powerhouse of content.

To give you an idea of what a robust home server can handle, here is a quick snapshot of what our current rig is actively hosting and serving up on a daily basis:

TV Shows: 596 series totalling 17,846 individual episodes

Movies: 1,587 feature films in original disc quality

Music Library: 49,228 tracks representing 1,638 distinct artists

Try finding a mainstream streaming service that lets you keep that exact library forever, in maximum quality, without ever threatening to delete a single episode of your favourite comfort show.

Our Core Benefits of Cutting the Cord

1. Cost Savings & Total Ownership

The average household now pays for multiple streaming apps just to watch a handful of exclusives. With a self-hosted server, your only primary costs are the initial hardware and the hard drives. Once your data is on your array, it is yours permanently. No price hikes, no tiered subscription tiers for "4K access," and no content disappearing overnight due to corporate tax write-offs.

2. A Private Netflix for Friends and Family

One of the best features of a platform like Plex is its ability to create isolated, secure user profiles. We don't just use this massive library for ourselves; we share it directly with our home users and close friends. Our circle can log in from their own TVs, tablets, or phones, track their own "watch next" queues, and stream content simultaneously—all powered by our central home rig.

3. Audiophile-Grade Music Anywhere in the World

For music lovers, streaming platforms have a massive flaw: compression. By hosting our collection of nearly 50,000 tracks locally, we can stream lossless, high-fidelity audio directly to our devices. Using specialised mobile apps connected to our server, we have a private, seamless Spotify alternative in our pockets. Whether we are commuting, travelling abroad, or just out for a walk, our entire 1,638-artist collection is accessible anywhere in the world with zero compromises on sound quality.

What’s Coming Next:

Inside the "Hardware Graveyard"

You might be wondering: What kind of powerhouse does it take to stream files to multiple people at once?

The answer might surprise you. You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds on enterprise-grade server racks to get incredible performance. In fact, some of the best, most efficient home servers are built by breathing new life into older, reliable components.

In our upcoming blog posts, we are going to pull back the curtain and give you an exact look at the hardware powering this massive project. We’ll be breaking down our specific equipment specs—diving into why we select certain high-reliability enterprise drives, how we optimise power consumption for a machine that runs 24/7, and how you can salvage and repurpose components to build your own budget-friendly media monster.

We will walk you through the entire process, from component selection to software setup, so you can build a digital sanctuary of your own.

Stay tuned for the deep dive into our server architecture. Until then, happy building—and stop paying for subscriptions you don't own!

What’s on the Horizon?

Welcome to the King Horizon log. This isn't a motivational space—it’s just a running record of the projects we’re building and the stuff we’re actually interested in.

We don’t believe in picking a lane. If the strategy is solid and the vibe is right, we’re in it. Here’s a look at what’s currently moving:

• We’re deep into the production of our first major release—a psychological fiction novel published right here under the King Horizon banner. It’s a deep dive into the mental architecture of an outcast and how things are not always as they appear to be from the outside, and we’ll be sharing the process of bringing it from a draft to a drop.

• We’re obsessed with how stories get told today. Expect posts breaking down digital media, as well as our take on the movies and TV shows that are actually pushing the needle.

• On the technical side, we’re currently geeking out over self-hosting. Specifically, building out a private, home-based streaming platform to take back control of our own media library. We’ll be sharing the hardware and the headaches.

No gatekeeping. Just the raw process of chasing a horizon that’s always shifting.

— MK